


i always thought you’d come back

by mind_boggling



Category: The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, but i wanted to upload if, ill edit it tomorrow, this is shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-21
Updated: 2017-11-21
Packaged: 2019-02-05 06:53:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12789195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mind_boggling/pseuds/mind_boggling
Summary: When he’s not around, he switches the cameras back on. He watches and analyses, because that’s what he’s best at. And he plays things on repeat, and watches the way she moves and the way she talks to another man. The way she looks at him, the things she says. The extent of her intimacy. And it’s nothing compared to what it was with Frank, anyone with eyes could see that.Frank yells when he realises he’d been watching her behind his back. He yells loudly and trashes a few things, and he has every right to be angry. He does. He doesn’t know it yet, but he will one day. Just because Frank gave up on her, doesn’t mean Karen gave up on him.





	i always thought you’d come back

**Author's Note:**

> the one where frank tells micro to stream feeds from the cameras outside karen's apartment, following the attack on senator ori
> 
> dedicated to maddy love u

He catches him watching her around five pm. 

David was inexplicably good at being quiet. He’d lean over his shoulder and watch his eyes move across the screen, looking back and forth between the different cameras angled outside of her apartment. Her routine was conspicuously consistent, and if it were him, he’d get bored of it. But just like watching Sarah, watching Zach and Leo; his affection amounted nothing to Frank. 

Just like Frank’s affection towards her amounted nothing to him. They’d never see eye to eye on things, just a mutual respect of needing to protect these people. A coexisting want for their wellbeing and watching them through cameras, longing to reach your hand into the static and let them know you’re there. It was all he ever wanted to do when Leo cried, or when Zach argued with Sarah. When she’d sit on the couch alone with a glass of wine. No TV, just the silence as her company.

Five pm was when she fled the Bulletin doors and hailed a cab back to her apartment. Five twenty five was when she arrived, entering her building before making her way to the second floor and approaching the window that opened out onto the street. She reads her mail in that window. She waters the white roses Frank gave her. She sometimes sits there with a beer.

It’s a Friday evening when she doesn’t approach the window. When she leaves the Bulletin and takes a cab a different way. A different route, a different routine, and Frank can’t help but go a little crazy when she breaks the formality. And David can only step in, having watched from afar and instantly find the chain of surveillance cameras that shoot her new journey. 

When she retreats from the cab and is greeted by another man, David’s heart can’t help but sink for Frank.

A week later when she skips her cab ride home to walk with another man, David can only sit in silence as Frank’s hands shake in anger.

Two weeks, and she’s kissing another man on the door to her apartment. And David can only just about stop himself from intervening as Frank shuts the entire system down. 

Frank gives up watching her. He gives up any hope he had left on her. Because he shouldn’t have expected her to wait. He shouldn’t have expected for things to be easy, for her to want this like he did. To be able to reciprocate what he felt, through the turbulent relationship the two of them had. She couldn’t. He knew she deserved to lead a normal life.

When he’s not around, he switches the cameras back on. He watches and analyses, because that’s what he’s best at. And he plays things on repeat, and watches the way she moves and the way she talks to another man. The way she looks at him, the things she says. The extent of her intimacy. And it’s nothing compared to what it was with Frank, anyone with eyes could see that. 

Frank yells when he realises he’d been watching her behind his back. He yells loudly and trashes a few things, and he has every right to be angry. He does. He doesn’t know it yet, but he will one day. Just because Frank gave up on her, doesn’t mean Karen gave up on him.

He watches her place the flowers in the window. She looks out of her window and onto the street below. It’s a solemn look upon her face, and he knew she wasn’t happy. He knew that Frank wasn’t happy either. Whatever they had, just had to be put into action somehow. 

And David just couldn’t let them give up on each other that easily.

**Author's Note:**

>  **title:** song lyrics from ' _jealous_ ' by _labrinth_
> 
> find me elsewhere:
> 
>  **twitter:** vanlangs  
>  **tumblr:** bisexualieberman


End file.
